XPost: alt.los-angeles, alt.home.repair, alt.politics.republicans
XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.misc
Things aren’t going so well with Karen Bass’s rebuilding of L.A. after the worst fires in the history of the city. Sure, she’s got the “we’re in this together” speechifying down. But sadly for L.A., speeches don’t get things done.
This week we found out that the Los Angeles mayor’s office has only
managed to get four building permits pushed through her city’s sausage
making machine. Seventy-two are in the queue. The multimillionaire named
to be the sherpa by which all things are rebuilt, has been allowed to fade
into the sunset.
“Recovery czar” Steve Soboroff, supposedly Bass’s rebuilding point man, complained as he left his 90-day stint that he may have had responsibility
but none of the power to get things done. He was seldom brought into the mayor’s loop on her plans to “help” rebuild. He was, in short, window
dressing. Better she put Rick Caruso in charge and get out of his way. But
the pint sized socialist couldn’t bring herself to call in real capitalist expertise. Instead, she brought in her multimillionaire builder and then
didn’t give him authority to act. He didn’t fight for it, either.
What a complete waste of time and opportunity cost.
We know things are worse now because Karen Bass put herself in charge. And
it’s really tough to fill L.A.’s tank when the mayor’s standing on the
hose.
When she got back into the country and saw the devastation from the conflagration her city wasn’t prepared to fight, Bass gave her rah rah
speeches and vowed to rebuild. During the meeting with President Donald
Trump he encouraged her to exercise her emergency powers to get things
rebuilt quickly.
Let’s go to the tote board, folks.
Before he even met with Bass, President Trump had dropped federal
regulation after federal regulation, and turned on water supplies.
Afterwards, the EPA finished clean up of both fire sites on day 28 of its
30 day deadline.
The feds cleaned up 9,201 properties, removing paint, pesticides, lithium-
ion batteries from cars, asbestos, propane tanks, and other hazardous
material. Another 4,400 properties will be cleaned up in Phase 2 of the
EPA process.
Karen Bass got four permits through her own planning department. Four.
Bass has opened a dedicated permitting center and waived some
discretionary plan reviews for homes built by their original plans. A
measure to get a 30 day assessment of a plan allowing architects and
engineers to self-certify their projects and start construction
immediately, with city inspections, was passed by the L.A. City Council
one week after the fires started…and then ignored by Karen Bass. She
ordered a study on the program that has been used successfully in nearby Bellflower as well as in San Diego and New York.
“Stakeholders,” who don’t include fire victims, are concerned that people
who just lost their homes won’t try to fireproof and seismically shore up
the houses they already shored up before they burned down.
And, the city that cut back fire department spending to give more money
for the “homeless” industrial complex, now claims it doesn’t have enough
money to expand funding for the planning department to, you know, help
citizens rebuild their own burned down homes. Maybe Bass can redirect to
the Palisades a few of those free housing planners designing homes for the
drug tourists who came to California to get free homes.
Indeed, homeless housing is the top priority in La Jefa’s budget over
public safety. As a reminder, public safety comprises fire and police.
The L.A. budget is reported to be $1 billion short. The L.A. city budget
claims it has more than 3,134 temporary positions from grants, for other programs but apparently not for its building department. It sounds like
retired architects, builders, and others should step up to help out. That
is, if they still live in the city that keeps pricing out retirees.
As expected, Angelenos are discovering the hard way that leftist
socialistas know only how to tear things down, not build things up.
Karen Bass isn't up to the task.
There are plenty of big events coming guaranteed to distract her from rebuilding. She’s facing down the calendar as the world descends to come
to the FIFA World Cup this July, the NBA Finals in 2026, and the Olympics
in 2028.
And all she's done is produce four stinkin’ permits.
https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2025/04/13/why-la-knows-that-karen-bass- cant-get-it-done-n4938863
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